Don’t have an ing-bing (a temper tantrum) if your noodle juice (tea) gets cold while you’re watching this video — if you’re a whale (a competent person), you can just reheat it.
Ahead of the Jan. 3, 2016, U.S. premiere of the sixth and final season of Downton Abbey, stars Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery, Allen Leech and Kevin Doyle joined TIME at the Plaza Hotel—somewhere the Crawley family might really have seen if they visited New York City in the 1920s—to discuss the show’s take on history and to test their own knowledge of historical 1920s slang. (All terminology and definitions were found in the second edition of Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang.)
As Downton approaches its end, the actors reflected on the moral of the story, and whether viewers ought to leave looking nostalgically backward, like Mr. Carson, or looking forward like Lady Mary. The answer is that, even if you preferred to look back, there’s not much point in it.
“It’s about moving forward, yes, but I think ultimately the show’s about people just trying to be good or do good. They’re just kind of getting through life,” said Dockery, who plays Lady Mary. “That’s why it’s very sort of human, the show. I think that’s what people relate to. Even in spite of them being from a completely different time period. People can relate to them in some way.”
And besides, as pretty as the period costumes and sets may be, there’s lots about the 1920s that we’re much better off without. “It’s nice to visit,” as Bonneville, who plays Lord Grantham, put it, “on Sunday night for an hour.”
Get our History Newsletter. Put today's news in context and see highlights from the archives.
